


the cure for anything

by regonym



Category: Tsuritama
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-05 11:15:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1093249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regonym/pseuds/regonym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“We won’t let this line break. As long as it doesn’t, you’ll be able to come back.”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	the cure for anything

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stariceling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stariceling/gifts).



> Happy holidays, Stariceling! I hope this is close to what you were asking for. <3
> 
> Many thanks to novembersmith, both for convincing me to sign up for Yuletide in the first place and for supporting me through the occasional WHAT-AM-I-DOING panic attack as I attempted to write this. You're the best, boo.

_"We won’t let this line break. As long as it doesn’t, you’ll be able to come back.”_

There’s a stillness to the air, despite the roiling of the ocean around them. Yuki looks at Haru, feels Natsuki’s gaze upon them both. Akira is shouting something from the boat’s cockpit, something that can’t be heard over the roar of the water.

They all know what must be done.

_"Even if the world ends today, I just want to fish.”_

* * *

“What do you  _mean_ he’s come back?!” Natsuki’s voice yelled down the phone line. Yuki winced and glanced back over at where Haru was sitting on the couch next to Kate, waving his arms about enthusiastically as he recounted some detail of his trip back to Earth. Urara sat on his other side, fidgeting quietly with his hands in his lap.

“I don’t know what to tell you, he just showed up again as a transfer student at school today,” he hissed in reply. Natsuki huffed out a breath, and Yuki could picture him scrubbing a hand through his hair, somewhere on the other side of the ocean. “Urara’s with him too.”

“I’m getting the first plane home that I can,” Natsuki said flatly. When Yuki weakly tried to protest, he let a drawn-out silence drag on the line, pointedly.

“Okay.” Yuki closed his eyes, secretly somewhat relieved. He didn’t know what Haru’s return really meant, or what Urara’s presence and Coco’s absence might add to the overall mystery. When the three of them had departed six months ago, it hadn’t sounded like they’d be able to come back. Haru had breezily said something about how “people would be mad!” before moving onto another topic in his usual way.

Yuki hung up the phone and went back to sit with the others. Kate looked over at him across a wildly gesticulating elbow and smiled, tilting her head.

“Shall we all have some dinner? Haru, you can set the table – everything’s just where it was when you left. Perhaps Urara can help you?”

“Okay!” Haru grabbed a startled-looking Urara’s hand and tugged him to his feet. “This way, this way!” He bounced out of the room with Kate following behind, hiding a smile behind her hand.

Yuki trailed after them towards the kitchen, still feeling slightly bemused. The school day had passed in a haze of disbelief, and the joy he’d felt at Haru’s return had eventually been crept up on by anxiety. Haru had come here for a purpose last time; was that the case now as well? His nerves weren’t helped by the sudden pounding coming from the front door, and he scurried to answer.

He was stunned to find Akira standing there, breathing hard, a duck held under each arm. He appeared to have been knocking on the door with his forehead, judging by the mark that was swiftly growing there.

Yuki stared at him, his vocabulary deserting him entirely. (His command of words had gotten better, over the events of the past year, but there were still occasions where he would freeze up.)

“Is it true,” Akira asked breathlessly, “that Haru has returned?”

Yuki nodded mutely.

“And JFX is with him?”

Yuki jerked, glancing back over his shoulder towards the kitchen involuntarily. He ratcheted back around to meet Akira’s gaze again, and nodded once more.

Akira’s expression turned grim. “I have news I think I should share with you all. May I come in?”

Wordlessly, Yuki swung the door wide.

* * *

Kate thankfully took over once Akira was inside, seating him at the kitchen table, finding snacks for the ducks, and offering tea to all and sundry. Haru’s eyes had grown to the size of saucers when Akira had come into the room, and Urara’s reaction to the ducks had been similar to that of cat encountering an unexpected pair of Rottweilers. They were now seated on the other end of the table from Akira, Haru for once fidgeting as much as Urara.

Akira seemed almost reluctant to begin, but he eventually lowered his teacup and sighed. “DUCK received a high-alert report this morning. Our long-range sensors picked up a vessel entering Earth’s airspace, and identified it as one we’d previously encountered. My superiors are… concerned that this might mean another incident like the one six months ago is imminent –”

“That’s not going to happen!” Haru exclaimed, leaping from his chair. He rocketed from the kitchen and returned clutching the fishing pole he’d shown up with at school. “We’re here because I want to teach Urara to fish, that’s all. It’s a vacation!”

Akira and Yuki exchanged glances. Haru was smiling, his face set in lines of earnest determination, but his hands were trembling slightly where they gripped the fishing rod. Urara had graduated from fidgeting to downright squirming in his chair.

Akira coughed and looked away. “Well. Obviously DUCK will take the most sensible course of action as per protocol. I’ve been reassigned here for the time being to monitor the situation.”

“How wonderful!” Kate clapped her hands in delight, startling the rest of them. “You will all have a chance to catch up. Now tell me, Akira, do you have a place to stay for the night?”

* * *

It was in the small hours of the morning that Yuki finally gave up and opened his eyes, staring up at the ceiling. If he strained his ears, he could hear Akira snoring faintly from downstairs, the faint whistling of Urara and Haru’s breathing in the room next door.

After dinner, his grandmother had bustled about finding places for everyone to sleep. Akira didn’t seem to mind that his legs dangled off the edge of the living room couch; he was more concerned with the comfort of his ducks (Kate had found them some towels that they seemed happy with, going by their contented quacking).

Closing his eyes again, the events of the day began to play back like a filmreel in Yuki’s mind. Seeing Haru at school had brought back memories of his older self, of the person he had been a year ago. So much had changed since then.

His phone buzzed suddenly on the bedside table, and Yuki groggily swiped for it to see who it was. There was a new text from Natsuki.

-  _hey. okay if I crash at your place? don’t want to freak my family out by showing up at 4 am._  

Yuki blinked, and got out of bed to poke his head out onto the balcony. Natsuki looked up at him from the courtyard below where he stood with his suitcase, snapping his phone shut and meeting Yuki’s gaze with a small smile.

* * *

They were all a bit bleary-eyed as they gathered around the breakfast table the next morning. Haru had been excited to learn of Natsuki’s arrival (“Natsuki! Your hair’s long again!”), and Akira had seemed quietly pleased to see him again as well (not that he would ever have admitted it out loud).

Kate smiled over her tea at them all, seemingly the only one who was perfectly well-rested. “Will you all be going out fishing today, then?”

“Yes!” Haru answered before the rest of them could open their mouths. “I need to start teaching Urara right away!”

Urara startled a bit from where he was setting down his miso soup, and offered up a shy smile to the group.

Natsuki raised an eyebrow at Haru’s exuberance. He had paid keen attention to Akira’s muttered summary of DUCK’s concerns, and had been watching the pair of aliens in thoughtful silence ever since.

“You’re even more eager to get fishing than the first time you showed up,” he commented. “What’s the big hurry?”

Haru’s smile dimmed just a bit, and he lowered his hands from where he’d flung them into the air. “No reason!”

Natsuki stared at him skeptically for another moment, then pushed his chair back with a groan. “Well, if I’m going to be fishing on four hours’ sleep, we’d better have a good catch to make up for it.” He smiled to take the sting out of his words. “I’m going to stop by my family’s place first, but I’ll meet you guys down at the quay after?”

Yuki looked up at him, nodding along with the others. There was a kind of quiet happiness welling up inside him, despite the continued presence of unanswered questions. He had kept up with his fishing over the past six months, of course, but it was never quite the same as when he had been alongside his friends.

Gathering equipment only took a short time (Haru squawked with delight when he discovered his old blue lifejacket was still right where he’d left it, and pulled it over Urara’s head with glee), and they were soon on their way down to the seashore, where a beautifully blue-skied day was waiting for them.

Yuki watched with some bemusement as Haru and Akira took it in arguing turns to start explaining the assembly of tackle to Urara, who looked dazedly from one to the other like a spectator at a ping-pong match. When the squabble reached the point where Haru was making faces and sticking out his tongue, Yuki smiled, shook his head, and stood up to make his first cast.

* * *

Natsuki had clearly been dragooned into some catch-up time at home, because it was closer to noon by the time he joined them. He was laden down with take-out bags from his father’s store along with his fishing gear, and the five of them sat with their legs dangling down the edge of the quay for a break.  

The tensions of the previous evening and morning had ebbed somewhat, although Yuki had noticed during the morning that Haru kept a close eye on Urara whenever waves came close to splashing them. Urara had seemed to be quietly enjoying himself, and Haru had been downright manic, making cast over cast like he was trying to make up for lost time.

In the end it was Natsuki who noticed it, catching one of Haru’s hands after a particularly flailing gesture. Haru stopped what he was saying mid-sentence and turned to look at where Natsuki was scowling down at his palm; red marks were beginning to form there, raised and angry. “Were you not wearing gloves earlier?”

“I – “

“Idiot!” Natsuki snapped. “You don’t have any of your old calluses, you could hurt yourself.” He turned away to start rummaging in his bag, coming up with a small first aid kit and bandages.  

Yuki craned his neck from Haru’s other side to watch as Natsuki began to wrap first one hand, then the other. He nudged Haru gently and said, “You can tell us, you know. We all remember what happened the last time you tried to handle something all on your own.”

Haru had kept his head dipped all throughout the bandaging, his eyes temporarily invisible behind his bangs. Now he lifted them with a jerk, meeting Yuki’s gaze, then Akira’s, then turning back to look at Natsuki as he taped off the last piece of gauze. “It’s a test,” he finally said in a small voice. “We weren’t supposed to tell anyone.”

He seemed reluctant to continue, even when Akira prompted, “A test?”

“I have to prove I’m not dangerous.” Urara’s voice surprised them all. He smiled timidly as their eyes fell upon him, and continued, “My self-control is… somewhat in question after what happened, and It’s been decided by the elders on our planet that if I can learn to fish and be around water without accidentally influencing any humans, I can be trusted again. Haru kindly offered to help me with my task.” 

Haru nodded automatically, swiping the back of one hand across his eyes.

Yuki looked from one downcast alien face to the other, and smiled. “Well. Is that all?” He stood up, dusting himself off and reaching for his discarded fishing pole. “We’ll have you catching tuna in no time.”

Haru looked up at him in surprise, and Natsuki chuckled. “What, did you think we’d hear all that and not want to help? Wear these from now on, though,” he said firmly as he handed out gloves. Urara got a pair as well.

Akira coughed and retrieved his fishing pole too, avoiding eye contact with any of them as he made a cast out into the water. “I suppose that DUCK would want me to aid in any efforts that might help protect humanity.”

Natsuki scoffed at him. “You missed fishing with us, don’t even try to front.”

“Everyone!” Haru’s smile had been making a steady reappearance through this entire exchange, and his interruption was well-timed. He bounced to his feet and bowed to them all, Urara quickly following suit. “Thank you.”

“Of course!” Yuki slung an arm around Haru’s shoulders and pulled him back upright. A warm feeling was unfurling in his chest. It felt like it could stretch to cover the whole town, the entire island. “I could stay here forever, after all.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from a Karen Blixen quote: “The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears or the sea.”


End file.
